Wild Wales - George Borrow, Collins Souvenir Edition, 1964 Reprint

In 1854, George Borrow set out to walk Wales. Not to visit it, or pass through it, but to know it - its mountains and rivers, its people and its ancient language. What he wrote about that journey has never gone out of print.

This is the Collins Souvenir Edition, first published in this form in 1955 and reprinted in 1964. It contains over a hundred photographs taken along the actual routes Borrow walked, each captioned with a line from the text. The blue cloth boards are clean and solid. The dustjacket is present and worn - torn at the corners and spine, as you would expect from a book that has been read and handled and given as a gift. Someone inscribed their name on the endpaper. Someone gave it at Christmas.

It is a book about paying close attention to a place. It still is.

DETAILS

Title: Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery Author: George Borrow Publisher: Collins, London and Glasgow Edition: Collins Souvenir Edition, first published 1955, this reprint 1964 Introduction by Cecil Price Dimensions: approx. 11.5 × 18.5 × 2.5 cm Condition: Good vintage condition. Blue cloth boards clean and firm. Dustjacket present but worn — tears to corners and spine edges. Previous owner's name inscribed to endpaper. Interior pages clean. Over 100 photographs intact throughout.

THE STORY

Borrow walked into Wales in the summer of 1854 with his wife and stepdaughter, a working knowledge of Welsh, and an extraordinary eye for the particular. He noticed everything - the colour of a river, the cadence of a stranger's speech, the way a hill held the light.

Wild Wales is the record of that attention. It is not a guidebook and it is not quite a memoir. It is something rarer: a portrait of a place made by someone who understood that to truly see somewhere, you have to be willing to go slowly.

This copy has been read. It has been given as a gift. Someone's name is written inside in ink that has faded slightly with the years. These are not flaws. They are the marks of a book that has done what books are for.

Some things are worth preserving.

Moss & Maye